I was rushing up to my desk the other day and captured a pretty cool sight – Matt was playing with his legos.  In advance of a demonstration project to test Freno, an urban rain garden system he developed here at HOK with teammates Paul Wilhelms and HOK alum Jim Fetterman, Matt was thinking through the layout utilizing some small models built by our in-house model shop.  Perfectly to scale, and leading to some great tweaks in the design, these pieces act like a kit of parts – enabling a quick rain garden building experience right there on the deck.

Yes! I did kind of rush over the fact that …

It’s been a while since I wrote about our friendly product development happening right behind my desk.  Matt’s been fast at work moving toward a pilot project here in downtown St Louis and tweaking last-minute details. Matt Snelling, along with Paul Wilhelms and Jim Fetterman are the brains behind the operation, but Matt has really been around since day 1, and thus, is the subject of this post.

Recently I fired off a bunch of questions to Matt (I mean really, why just turn around and talk to him when I can send a verbose email?) and I think some of his answers really get to the heart of this project.  Stay tuned …

Rain’s in the forecast and so what better excuse do I have to post-pone that massive amount of yardwork I would love to be doing to bring you a bit more….Freno!  Matt showed me the video he and Javier, another co-hort from Planning who also sits next to Matt, created showing the features of this product. I’ve embedded the video below, but for those of you more literary types, here’s the deal in print.

To touch on what we covered in the last post, Freno is what we call a segmental wall system, it’s basically a kit of 3 concrete parts that are precast just like building blocks in a variety of arrangements to accommodate any site’s installation …

In honor of the impending Earth Day, and to celebrate National Landscape Architecture Month, let’s talk rain gardens!  I’ll pause for oohs and aahs.

Here in the Planning Group we’re always trying to come up with an ideal way to deal with rainwater on-site rather than piping it.  We’ve tried infiltration fields, bioswales, rain gardens, etc etc.  These all work when you have plenty of space, permeable surface, and the option to alter topography on sites.  This, as you can imagine, gets a bit difficult when you’re in the middle of a city…in the middle of a street…

Urban rain …

One of my coworkers here in the Planning Group turned me onto what is now my all-time favorite podcast (That’s right, you’ve been replaced This American Life – I mean, I have listened to your ENTIRE archive…).  I am, thus, turning you, dear reader, onto the super-fun also.  And I’ve just listened to exactly the starter-’sode that will surely get you hooked.  A Great talk by Merlin Mann about Creative Work and the weirdos that attempt to do it, or attempt to start it.  Two very enthusiastic virtual thumbs up.  Way up.

 Listen here:

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This podcast is, simply put, about things that are awesome.  The host, Jesse Thorn (America’s Radio Sweetheart), asks lots of cool questions of people …

They may not look like what you would first imagine. 

They may not look like anything TV makes them out to be. 

But they are . . .

the St. Louis HOK Biker Gang!
 
  

[It may be necessary to say "the St. Louis HOK Biker Gang!" in your best dramatic theatrical voice over; go ahead, try it again, I'll wait]

[l-r: Seth Teel, Jason Kerensky, Paul Wilhelms, Derek Prior, Brett Kostial, Tim Gaidis]

[l-r: Jon Cohen, JoAnn Brookes, Bruce Brunner, Derek Prior, Seth Teel,
Brett Kostial, Matt Snelling, Jason Kerensky, Tim Gaidis, Mark Rosen,
Paul Wilhelms, Steven Crang,

…

The weather in St. Louis had risen out of the cool Spring temperatures just in time for our Arbor Day picnic.

A medium sized group of St. Louis employees grabbed our lunches and took the short walk to the Arch.  I like to believe that we all went to enjoy each other’s company, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it was mostly about getting out of the office into some fresh air!   Whatever the excuse, we did enjoy the company and the …

Matt Snelling from the Planning Group is the office’s resident Scorsese. His latest creation? Not The Godfather: Part IV, but a very cool video for the Opening Ceremony of the first-ever HOK RecycOlympics, a Sustainability Awareness Month fundraising, IOC-sanctioned event with proceeds going to EarthShare. RecycOlympics events highlight the office’s efforts to reduce waste and are inspired by last year’s Wii bowling tournament and The Office television show. The preliminaries will go down during lunchtime on April 10, with the final eight competitors vying for Gold on April 16. Ready steady go!

http://www.vimeo.com/3979866 
Cast: Matt Snelling, Julie Hick, Barry Sutherland, Chris Trowbridge, George Clooney
…